Opus III
Encyclopedia : O : OP : OPU : Opus III
Opus III was a techno and house music group from England who had major success on the UK singles charts and on the US Dance chart. The group consisted of vocalist Kirsty Hawkshaw and producers/musicians Kevin Dobbs, Ian Munro and Nigel Walton. The group members also promoted a strong environmental message through their lyrics, album liner notes and photo and video imagery.
Their debut album Mind Fruit produced the track "It's a Fine Day," a cover of a 1983 single by Jane & Barton, which topped the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1992 and reached number 5 in the UK singles chart. The song, now considered a house music classic, is the basis of Orbital's 1993 track, "Halcyon + On + On", found on their second eponymous album (the "la la la" section of the "It's A Fine Day" chorus was backmasked and sampled throughout the song).
Interestingly enough, Hawkshaw, impressed with the Orbital track, returned the favor by appearing in the video for "Halycon + On + On" playing a housewife who was 'under the influence' (even though she looked like she was daydreaming, but that could be disputed). The other single release from "Mind Fruit", was "I Talk To The Wind". This was not a big chart success in the UK, only reaching #52.
Opus III's second album Guru Mother surfaced in 1994 and produced another #1 dance song "When You Made the Mountain". A third dance chart entry, "Hand in Hand (Looking for Sweet Inspiration)" hit #14.
The group disbanded after their second album. Hawkshaw is still a major presence in dance music, lending her vocals to a number of electronic and dance music artists and tracks well into the 21st century.
See also
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
Notes
References
External links
- [Everything2 node on Opus 3] (sic)
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.